rray at ix.netcom.com (ROMAN RAY ) wrote:
> Living sytems have order. Why does this not violate the second law
>of thermodynamics?????
It does not violate the second law - this law only applies to *isolated*
systems - those which can not exchange heat or matter with their
surroundings. Living cells/organisms are *open* sytems because they
exchange both heat and matter (nutrients/excreta) with their
surroundings.
If you do the measurements/calculations on a living system *plus* its
surroundings, then any decrease in the entropy of the living system (an
increase in its "order") is more than balanced by an increase of the
entropy of the surroundings.
Simon